210 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 174. 



Sigma inquires why " this ancestor of Sir Wal- 

 ter's was called Old Satchels?" Hear the poet 

 himself upon this point : 



« Since the water of Ail Scots they are all chang'd and 

 gone, 

 Except brave Whitslade and Hardin ; 

 ! And Satchels his estate is gone, 

 Except his poor designation ; 

 "Which never no man shall possess. 

 Except a Scot designed Satchels." — Posfral, p. 97. 



As a further sample of this old soldier's poetry, 

 take his dedication "To the truely Worthy, Honor- 

 able, and Right Worshipful Sir Francis Scot of 

 Thirlston, Knight Baronet, wishes Earth's honor 

 and Heaven's happiness ;" 



" This book, good Sir, the issue of my brain. 

 Though far unworthy of your worthy view, 

 In hope ye gently will it intertain, 

 Yet I in duty offer it to you ; 

 Although the method and the phrase be plain. 

 Not art, like writ, as to the style is due, 

 And truth, I know, your favor will obtain : 

 The many favors I have had from you 

 Hath forc'd me thus to show my thankful mind ; 

 And of all faults I know no vice so bad 

 And hateful as ungratefully inclined. 

 A thankful heart is all a poor man's wealth. 

 Which, with this book, I give your worthy self. 

 T humbly crave your worthiness excuse 

 This boldness of my poor unlearned muse. 

 That hath presumed so high a pitch to fly 

 In praise of virtue and gentility. 

 I know this task's most fit for learned men. 

 For Homer, Ovid, or for Virgil's pen ; 

 These lines I have presum'd to dite ; 

 It's known to your Honor I could never write. 



" Your Honor's most obed. servant, 



" Walter Scot of Satchels." 



Satchels' chronicle deals largely in warlike 

 matters. The Captain, indeed, seems to have a 

 contempt for all not of his own honorable profes- 

 sion ; consequently the book is full of the deeds, 

 both foreign and domestic, of the " Bold Buc- 

 cleugli," and the clans Scott and Elliott. Insti- 

 gated, no doubt, by the example of John Barbour 

 and Henry the Minstrel, the author aimed at 

 doing for the Scotts what his prototypes so wor- 

 thily achieved, respectively, for Robert Bruce and 

 William Wallace. 



As mentioned by T. G. S., there was another 

 reprint of this curious book, that of Hawick, by 

 Caw, 1784. I know not to whom we owe either. 

 Looking, however, to the names of the printers 

 and period of publication, I should say that the 

 earliest of these may have been one of the publi- 

 cations of that friend to the literature of his coun- 

 try, Sir David Dalrymple ; and as we know that 

 Sir Walter Scott made his first appearance as a 

 poet in the Poetical Museum, printed at Hawick, 

 by Caw, in 1786, may he not, with his strong and 



early predilection for the honour of the clan Scott, 

 and his special affection for this " True History " 

 of his namesake, have prompted the worthy Mr. 

 Caw to the enterprise ? Any edition of the book 

 is of rare occurrence ; and it has often surprised 

 me that Captain Walter Scot should have been 

 overlooked, when the Bannatyne, Maitland, and 

 Abbotsfoi'd Clubs were so nobly employed in re- 

 suscitating the old literature of Scotland. J. O. 



STATUE OF ST. PETER. 



(Vol. vl., p. 604. ; Yol. vii., pp. 96. 143.) 



B. H. C. asks for the authority on which is 

 based the statement, that this statue was undoubt- 

 edly cast for a St. Peter, and cast in the time of 

 St. Leo the Great (440—461). As the subject 

 involves three questions, I will answer each sepa- 

 rately. 



1. AVas this statue cast for a St. Peter, or is it 

 an ancient statue that bad been found in the 

 Tiber ; or the ancient statue of Jupiter Capitoli- 

 nus ? That it must have been cast for a St. Peter 

 will be readily allowed, after a careful examin- 

 ation, by any one at all accustomed to compare 

 Pagan and Christian statues. The left hand hold- 

 ing the keys, and the right hand raised in bene- 

 diction, are unmistakeable evidences of the per- 

 sonage represented. 



2. What authority is there for believing it to 

 have been cast in the pontificate of St. Leo ? The 

 authority is, first, a constant and very ancient 

 tradition to that effect ; secondly, a tradition that 

 this same statue belonged to the ancient church of 

 St. Peter's ; and, thirdly, the almost unanimous 

 belief in this tradition amongst the antiquaries 

 and archaeologists — local and at a distance, de- 

 ceased and living. 



This tradition is mentioned by most writers on 

 the Basilica of St. Peter's : 



" A destra evoi, in somma venerazione tenata, ima 

 statua in bronzo dell' apostolo S. Pietro, simulacra 

 formato, secondo la pia tradizione, a tempi di S. Leone /. 

 detto il grande," &c. — Melchiorri, p. 181., ed. 1840. . 



" On the right hand is a statue, held in very great 

 veneration, of bronze, of the Apostle St. Peter : a 

 figure cast, according to the pious tradition, in the time 

 of St. Leo I., named the Xjreat." 



Tradition also asserts, that the statue belonged 

 to the old church of St. Peter's : 



" The seated bronze statue of St. Peter, which be- 

 longed to the ancient church, is said to have been cast 

 in the time of Leo the Great." — Rome, Ancient and 

 Modern, by J. Donovan, D.D., vol. i. p- 314. 



There may now be seen, in what was part of 

 old St. Peter's, and is now called tlie " Grotfe 

 Vecchie," where the old flooring still remains — the 

 old base of the bronze figure of St. Peter. It is 



